"Not half as good as I ought to be. But there are two things to be considered, dear. There is the climate, as you say, and then there is a social question we have never talked about—it seems so far away now. In the first place, does Rome really suit you? Are you always well there, as you were last winter?"
"Oh, yes. I have always been perfectly well in Rome, and I like the place immensely, besides."
"And you have your friend, Signor Ghisleri, too. That is another point. On the other hand, I do not think either of us would ever wish to stay a whole winter with my mother and step-father. We must live somewhere by ourselves, and we shall have to live very quietly."
"The more quietly the better. Is that the social question, darling?"
"No," answered Laura, "but it is connected with it. There is something I never spoke of. Did it ever strike you, when you first knew me, that somehow I was not so much liked as other girls in society? Do not think I ask the question out of any sort of vanity. I want to know what your impression was. Tell me quite frankly, will you?"
"Of course I will. It did strike me—I never knew whether you were aware of it. I even tried to find out the reason of it, and to some extent I believe I did."
"Did you?" asked Laura, with sudden interest. "I wish I knew—I have so often thought about it all."
Arden laughed, leaning back in his chair and looking at her face.
"It is the most absurd story I ever heard," he said. "I ought not even to say I heard it, for I guessed it from little things that happened. People think that your step-sister's husband, Savelli, is in love with you, and I suppose they imagine that you have something to do with it—encouraged him, and that sort of thing. I am quite sure that Donna Adele—am I to call her Adele now?—is jealous, for I have witnessed the manifestation with my own eyes. It is all too utterly ridiculous, but as you are quite English you were at a disadvantage, and were not as popular as you ought to have been."
He laughed again, and this time Laura joined in his laughter.